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In Dwarf Fortress, a creature is defined as any animate, normally-mobile (and for the sake of this article, non-vermin) being that can interact with the world. Although most creatures are animals, dwarves, giant cave spiders, and even megabeasts are all also considered creatures. Various creatures can and will interact with a fortress or adventure in many different ways.

The creatures that will spawn on any given fortress map depend on the biome(s) that the fortress is in. In addition, there are several creature tokens in the raws that deal with creature spawning:

[FREQUENCY:X]: This tag dictates how often a creature will spawn. It ranges from 0 to 100, and is a comparative number, where the higher this number is, the more likely the creature is to spawn.

[CLUSTER_NUMBER:X]: This determines how many creatures will appear at a time on a map.

[POPULATION_NUMBER:X]: This determines the total number of this type of creature that can ever visit your fortress. The exact number varies, depending on the map, but, for example, a deer has a [POPULATION_NUMBER:15:30], meaning that if you kill between 15 and 30 deer, no more deer will ever visit your fortress.

Tile: The tile assigned to the creature, how you will see it without a graphic set.

Name: The name of the creature as it shows up in-game.

Playable: If "No", the creature is not playable. "Fort" indicates that the creature is playable in Dwarf Fortress mode. "Adv" indicates that creature is playable in Adventure mode. (Note that creatures that are usually unplayable in adventure mode (such as Goblins) may be made playable by the world's history.)

Hostile: If "Yes" then the creature will attack on sight, if "No" then the creature is either neutral or friendly. Undead creatures are always hostile to living things.

Food Source: If "Yes" then the creature can be butchered into edible substance that your dwarves will feed on.

Adult Body Size: The average size of the creature when an adult. This can be anywhere from 500 for a rabbit to 25,000,000 for a dragon. The creature's volume in cm3, which for creatures made of flesh more or less equals the creature's weight in grams.[1] These sizes do not correspond to the sizes which trigger pressure plates. Size is modified with height and broadness (i.e. incredible skinny and short is below the average weight, while a fat and tall one is above it).

Pet Value: This is the value the creature can be bought and sold for as a pet during trading.

Note: Except for wagons, domestic animals can be bought at embark, or requested from dwarven caravans. Animals of these types below that are caught in the wild with cage traps can be tamed after only one session with an animal trainer.